Management Module 2

What are the different decision styles?

Directive, Conceptual, Analytical and Behavioral

What is the conceptual style?

Managers like a broad amount of information

What is the behavioral style?

Managers with a deep concern for others

What is the differentiation strategy?

When a company competes by offering unique products that are widely valued by customers. Product differences might come from exceptionally high quality, extraordinary service, innovative design, 14 technological capability, or an unusually positive brand image

What is the cost leadership strategy?

When an organization competes on the basis of having the lowest costs (costs or expenses, not prices) in its industry.

How does planning and goal setting provide direction?

When employees know what their organization or work unit is trying to accomplish and what they must contribute to reach goals, they can coordinate their activities, cooperate with each other, and do what it takes to accomplish those goals.

What plans would fall under the category Specificity?

Specific and Directional

What does the acronym SMART stand for?

Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time - bound

What does strategic management entail?

Strategic management includes setting objectives for the company, analyzing the 12 actions of competitors, reviewing the organization's internal structure, evaluating current strategies and confirming that strategies are implemented company-wide.

What plans would fall under the breadth category?

Strategic, Operational and Tactic plans

What is the purpose of Environmental Scanning?

The basic purpose of environmental scanning is to help management determine the future direction of the organization.

Why must goals be relevant ?

The goal should align with other business objectives to be considered worthwhile. It answers the questions what should be done, why and what will be the impact. Must align with the wants and values of the members of the organization.

What is decision making?

The process of identifying problems and opportunities and then resolving them.

What is forecasting?

The process of predicting an outcome

What is project management?

The task of getting a project's activities done on time, within budget, and according to specifications.

What are the 6 steps in the decision making process?

1. Recognize that a decision needs to be made. 2. Generate multiple alternatives. 3. Analyze the alternatives. 4. Select an alternative. 5. Implement the selected alternative. 6. Evaluate its effectiveness.

What are the three steps in the crisis preparation stage?

1. Designating a crisis management team and spokesperson 2. creating a detailed crisis management plan 3. setting up an effective communications system.

What are the purposes of planning and goal setting?

1. . Planning provides direction 2. Planning reduces uncertainty 3. Planning minimizes waste and redundancy 4. planning establishes the goals or standards used in controlling.

What are the steps in Managing by Objectives process?

1. The organisation's overall objectives and strategies are formulated 2. Major objectives are allocated among divisional and departmental units 3. Unit managers collaberately set specific objectives for units with their manager 4. Specific objectives are collaberately set with department members. 5. Action plans, defining how objectives are to be achieved, are specified and agreed upon by managers and employess 6. Action plans are implemented 7. Progress towards objectives is periodically reviewed and feedback is given. 8. Successful achievement of objectives is reinforced by performance based rewards.

What is budgeting?

A budget is a numerical plan for allocating resources to specific activities.

What is linear programming?

A mathematical technique that solves resource allocation problems.

What are a business's weaknesses?

Activities the organization doesn't do well or resources it needs but doesn't possess.

What are a business's strengths?

Any activities the organization does well or any unique resources that it has.

What are techniques used for allocating resources?

Budgeting, Scheduling, Break - even Analysis and Linear Programming.

What are a business's opportunities?

Characteristics of the external environment that have the potential to help the organization achieve or exceed its organization goals.

What are a business's threats?

Characteristics of the external environment that may prevent the organization from achieving its strategic goals.

What are the benefits of strategic management?

Competitive advantage, Achieving goals, Sustainable growth, Cohesive organization.

What are the three planning methods used for turbulent environments?

Contingency planning, crisis planning and scenario building

What is contingency planning?

Contingency plans define company responses to be taken in the case of emergencies, setbacks, or unexpected conditions.

What is Environmental Scanning?

Environmental scanning is the process of gathering information about events and their relationships within an organization's internal and external environments.

What are the techniques used for assessing the environment?

Forecasting, SWOT analysis, Bench - marking, PESTLE, Environmental scanning

What are the 2 natures of planning?

Formal and Informal

What is goal setting?

Goal setting is the process of identifying something that you want to accomplish and establishing measurable goals and timeframes.

What are the two ways by which goals can be set?

Goals can be set through a tradtional process or by managment by objectives.

Why should goals be time - bound ?

Goals must have starting points, ending points, and fixed durations. Commitment to deadlines helps employees to focus their efforts on completion of the goal on or before the due date. Goals without deadlines or schedules for completion tend to be overtaken by the day-to-day crises that invariably arise in an organization.

Why must goals be attainable ?

Goals that are set too high or too low become meaningless, and employees naturally come to ignore them.

Why must goals be measurable?

If your goals are not measurable, you never know whether your employees are making progress toward their successful completion. Not only that, but it's tough for your employees to stay motivated to complete their goals when they have no milestones to indicate their progress.

What is involved in traditional goal setting?

In traditional goal setting, goals set by top managers flow down through the organization and become subgoals for each organizational area.

What is managing by objectives?

Is a process of setting mutually agreed-upon goals and using those goals to evaluate employee performance

What is benchmarking?

Is the search for the best practices among competitors or non-competitors that lead to their superior performance.

What is strategic management?

Is the strategic use of a business' resources to reach company goals and objectives.

How does planning and goal setting reduce uncertainty?

It forces managers to look ahead, anticipate change, consider the impact of change, and develop appropriate responses.

What does management by objectives involve?

It is a process of setting mutually agreed-upon goals and using those goals to evaluate employee performance.

What is managerial planning?

Managerial planning is a management function that involves the process of defining goals, establishing strategies for achieving those goals, and developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities.

What are strategic plans?

Plans that apply to the entire organization and encompass the organization's overall goals. The action steps by which an organisation intends to attain strategic goals.

What are specific plans?

Plans that are clearly defined and leave no room for interpretation

What are operational plans?

Plans that encompass a particular functional area.

What are tactical plans?

Plans that specify the details of how the overall goals are to be achieved

What are long - term plans?

Plans with a time frame beyond three years.

What are short - term plans?

Plans with a time frame of one year or less.

What does the acronym PESTLE stand for?

Political, Economic, Social, Technology, Legal, Environment

What are the 2 contemporary planning techniques?

Project management and Scenario planning?

What is qualitative forecasting?

Qualitative forecasting uses the judgment and opinions of knowledgeable individuals to predict outcomes.

What are the two categories of forecasting?

Quantitative and Qualitative.

What is quantitative forecasting?

Quantitative forecasting applies a set of mathematical rules to a series of past data to predict outcomes.

What is scenario building?

Scenario building involves looking at current trends and discontinuities and visualizing future possibilities.

What is scenario planning?

Scenario planning is identifying a specific set of uncertainties, different "realities" of what might happen in the future of your business.

What is scheduling?

Scheduling is allocating resources by detailing what activities have to be done, the order in which they are to be completed, who is to do each, and when they are to be completed.

What plans would fall under the Time - Frame category?

Short - term and Long -term

What plans would fall under the Frequecy of Use category?

Single - use and Standing

Why must goals be specific?

When goals are specific, they tell employees exactly what is expected, when, and how much. Because the goals are specific, you can easily measure your employees' progress toward their completion.

How does planning establish the goals or standards used in controlling?

When managers plan, they develop goals and plans. When they control, they see whether the plans have been carried out and the goals met.

How does planning and goal setting reduce waste and redundancy?

When work activities are coordinated around plans, inefficiencies become obvious and can be corrected or eliminated.

What is a single - use plan?

a one-time plan specifically designed to meet the needs of a unique situation

Why is planning called the primary management function?

because it establishes the basis for all other things that managers do.

What are the 3 competitive strategies?

cost leadership, differentiation and focus

What are the limitations of decision making?

i. It is very difficult for managers to be completely rational in their decision-making since decisions are taken keeping the future in mind, and the future is very uncertain. ii. It is very difficult to determine all the alternative courses of action that might be followed to accomplish a goal. 15 iii. In most cases, all possible alternatives generated cannot be thoroughly analyzed, even with sophisticated analytical techniques and computers.

What is the significance of decision making?

i. Managers who use a rational and systematic approach are more likely to come up with high quality solutions to the problems. ii. Rational decision-makers have a clear understanding of alternative courses of action to accomplish a goal under a particular set of circumstances. iii. Rational decision-making aims at deciding the best solution by selecting the alternative that most effectively facilitates goal achievement

What is the Directive style?

is used by people who prefer simple, clear-cut solutions to problems.

What is the analytical style?

like to consider complex solutions based on as much data as they can gather

What are standing plans?

ongoing plans that provide guidance for activities performed repeatedly

What are directional plans?

plans that are flexible and set out general guidelines

What is the focus strategy?

the focus strategy involves a cost advantage (cost focus) or a differentiation advantage (differentiation focus) in a narrow segment or niche. Segments can be based on product variety, customer type, distribution channel, or geographical location.